Freedomhouse Ballito

In this message, Ryan explores Jesus' invitation to live not as empty wells that constantly need refilling, but as springs overflowing with the life of God. So often we approach our relationship with God from a place of striving or spiritual depletion, believing we must continually earn or recover what Christ has already given us. Yet the gospel reveals something far greater. Drawing from Jesu...

In this message, Alexander explores how Jesus' baptism reveals the foundation of every believer's identity. Before Jesus performed a single miracle or began His public ministry, the Father declared Him to be His beloved Son. This affirmation became the secure place from which Jesus lived, resisted temptation, and fulfilled His mission.  Drawing from Jesus' temptation in the wilderness,...

This Father's Day Greg brings a timely reminder that if you don't know what God looks like, you just need to look at His Son. Listen in for an exploration of what it actually means that God calls himself Father. Not a lofty theological title, but something deliberately familiar, the kind of word you'd use in a home. Working through the Gospels and into Paul's letters, Greg makes th...

Nick continues the I Am series with a message that works two ways: the great I Am interrupting our cycles, and the decision to be the generation that says enough. Working through Gideon's story, Nick looks at how God tends to speak to people based on who he's calling them to be, not their current circumstances, fears, or track record, and makes the case that what looks like reduction (in a...

In this message, Kean shares deep encouragement from his own life , his first time preaching, just before heading off to minister in the US. He's honest about years of living two different lives: one version of himself at church, another with his friends, and the exhausting effort of keeping the two from colliding. He talks about what finally broke that open (a rough season, a desperate prayer...

Ryan picks back up on 2 Corinthians 5 in this message, building on last time's idea of the great exchange. The case he makes is that righteousness was never meant to function like a ticket, something that gets you in the door and then sits in your pocket. Instead, it's the basis for an actual relationship: because of what Jesus did, we're not just forgiven from a distance, we're br...

Most of us picture spiritual growth like a renovation project: same house, slowly getting fixed up. Ryan pushes back on that picture in this message, working from 2 Corinthians 5 and what he calls "the great exchange": Jesus takes what's wrong with us and hands over what's right about him, not as an upgrade, but as an entirely new identity. He's honest about how much of our s...

Cedric van Duyn is a dear friend and our guest who has shared many times at Freedomhouse. He and his beautiful wife Angie lead a church in Gig Harbour, America. He digs into a phrase Paul uses with Timothy: the "good deposit", something real that God has placed inside every believer through Christ. Drawing on the Great Commission and Paul's letters, he unpacks what that actually incl...

Ryan Matthews opens a new thread in our Identity, Authority and Mission series: the grace of God, and he starts with a pretty candid bit of his own story. After becoming a Christian as a teenager, he spent years quietly running on fear of messing up and the need for one particular leader's approval, and somehow ended up joyless and burnt out in ministry despite doing everything "right.&qu...

Practice Doesn't Make Perfect, Practice Makes Permanent That's the line Nicholas Graham opens with in this message, part of our Identity, Authority and Mission series, this time looked at through the lens of discipleship. Using Abraham's story (a man God called a "great nation" long before there was any evidence of it) and a pretty disarming illustration involving his own dau...

What's the difference between following someone and actually being part of them? In this message, guest speaker Greg Stevens who leads Immanuel in Durban North and also a key leader in Catalyst Connect, the wider family of churches we're connected to. Greg walks through a subtle but massive shift the disciples went through: from walking alongside Jesus to, after the resurrection, being cau...

On the first Easter morning, Mary didn't recognize Jesus — she thought he was just the gardener, until he said her name. In this Resurrection Sunday message, Ryan Matthews picks up that thread and asks what actually changes once Jesus is back from the dead. Not just a legal technicality that gets you off the hook, but something much more personal: a new status, a new family, and an invitation to s...

Before you press play: this message ends with communion, so it's worth having some bread and a little grape juice on hand if you'd like to take it together, wherever you're listening. It's Good Friday, and in this message, part four of our Identity, Authority and Mission series, Greg Nixon sits with the weight of the cross, not as a distant historical event but as the place where an old version of...

In this message from our I AM series, Greg Nixon gets honest about the narrative he carried about himself for years, and holds it up against what's actually said about us in Christ: chosen, adopted, made new. A look at why identity has to come before authority, and what it takes to start believing what's true about you. Wherever this message finds you, we hope it draws you closer to God an...

In the second message of our new series on identity, Ryan Matthews unpacks the lenses we all carry — the ones we didn't choose and probably don't notice — and how they're quietly shaping the way we see God, ourselves, and each other. Drawing on stories from Jesus' own life and right back to the beginning of the Bible, this one's about what it might take to start seeing clearly...

In this message, we begin a new series exploring Identity, Authority, and Mission, starting with the question of who we really are in Christ. Ryan unpacks how our identity is often shaped by the “lenses” we carry - formed through experiences, wounds, culture, and the stories we believe about ourselves. These lenses can quietly distort how we see God, ourselves, and others, making it difficult to r...

Ryan continues on the theme of lenses that we wear see through. We hope this series encourages you to ask God to show you where you might be wearing/carrying a lense and that the Holy Spirit would free you and lead you in to greater truth in how you follow Jesus.

Rooted in Luke chapter 4, Ryan continues in this theme reminding us what being filled with the power of the Holy Spirit to serve the world.

Ryan continues in his message on being filled with the power of the Holy Spirit for works of service and to see the Kingdom come for the sake of freedom in ourselves and in those around us.

Nicholas reminds us that the created world (nature) points us to God in remarkable ways, catalysing connection to God and ourselves. He suggests ways to be regulated as God designed it through His creation and offers us the practise of rest and space to reflect. Creation leads us to awe and wonder and Jesus, the source of our hope.

In this message, Ryan unpacks what it means to live a Spirit-empowered life. Drawing from Luke 4, he shows how Jesus moved from the river of love, through the wilderness of surrender, and into the power of the Spirit to announce freedom and favor. Love creates safety. Surrender creates sustainability. But it is the power of the Holy Spirit that advances the kingdom. This is a call to move beyond h...

As Freedom House steps into a five-day fast, Ryan opens an honest conversation about hunger—what stirs it, what it does in us, and why it matters. From Luke 11 and Luke 18, he explores Jesus’ framework for prayer and the posture behind it: a bold, persistent “keep asking, keep seeking, keep knocking” kind of faith. Along the way, Ryan shares a personal moment of growing dissatisfaction with the st...

In this message, Ryan continues exploring the baptisms of Jesus in Luke 3 and 4, moving from the baptism of the Father’s love into the  baptism of surrender . Drawing from Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness, he reminds us that Christ confronted the deepest roots of human brokenness on our behalf. Full of the Spirit and secure in the Father’s love, Jesus overcame the cravings that so often drive u...

With our February fast approaching, we're invited to examine what we're truly hungry for Jesus Himself. Ryan remindes us that following Jesus is never passive; it is active, intentional and responsive. We move with Him. Even Jesus, God in the flesh and the perfect example of life with the Father, walked in the power of the Holy Spirit. This week we explore the first two of three spiritual...

In this message, we explore what it means to be planted for purpose and called to move in mission. Drawing from Isaiah 61, we’re invited to step out of hidden seasons and into action, bringing our gifts, our presence, and our hearts into the mix. Nick unpacks how God calls us to grow through obedience, serve through participation, and bear fruit from deep roots, showing His splendor in every spher...